After Big Park Community School’s first two softball games were postponed Feb. 25 and 27, the entire season appeared in doubt for new head coach Kirk Westervelt.

“We almost didn’t have a team,” he said following the Coyotes’ 10-0 four-inning shutout of the West Sedona School on Tuesday, March 4. “We only had six girls sign up. We were thinking about maybe even putting them with West Sedona and making a combination team.”

Athletic director Diana Morison delayed the team’s debut to open tryouts to sixth graders.

“Diana said, we’ll give them another week,” Westervelt said. “Now we have 14 girls and three extra coaches. You don’t know how happy I was.”

Of the original six players who came out, three are “very, very good” returners, according to Westervelt, and that starts with ace pitcher Natalie Monge. The eighth grader threw eight strikeouts in her complete-game shutout of WSS, including striking out the side in the fourth and final inning.

“We have to have her,” Westervelt said. “If we lose her, we’re in big, big trouble. If we’re going to get to a championship, we’ll need her.”

Eighth-grader Ally Alver is a “vacuum at first [base],” Westervelt said. “She sucks up everything around her, can catch great and bat and throw as a lefty.”

For the full story, please see the Friday, March 7, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.